Duty vs. Desire

If I could move and live in Africa, I would. Really, I would. I am sure that I have an idealistic view of how it would be, but don't we all have that about place(s) that we want to go to or live in? Since it is not time for me to go to Africa yet (I emphasize YET), we sponsor children through World Vision. Our first was Mariserina from Kenya. We corresponded with her for years before her family moved. When she left, we decided to sponsor another girl in Ethiopia, Birtukan. Now here comes the honesty...

I haven't written her yet. Nothing. Today I got a mailing from her and felt horrible. So we will sit down and write her and include something from Mara and some 'snaps' (what Mariserina called pictures). But thinking deeper about this, I realize that I continued my sponsorship out of duty, not desire to pour love into another child or even wanting to witness to another family. I just did it because that is what we should do. Sad. So that will change, but now it makes me wonder what other things do we do out of duty that shouldn't be. Thought provoking. I think that is what will be on my mind this week.

As a side note, World Vision is awesome and had a very thought provoking blog about the famine in the Horn of Africa I wanted to share:

http://blog.worldvision.org/conversations/what-would-you-give-up/

Too Distracted?

So I have had the priviledge of taking Samara to swim lessons last week and this week, finishing up on thursday. She has done so well and I have loved being able to watch her explore and try things that scare her, like putting her head under. But today I looked around at the other moms here and noted that everyone of us was on our phone. It made me sad. Are we so preoccupied that we can't take 30 minutes out of our day to enjoy our children? I know that this time will fly by, yet I still struggle with taking each and every moment in without interruption and with enjoyment.

Distractions aside, Samara did a wonderful job. She now puts her head under, uses a kickboard to swim, and has learned to paddle, back float, and kick! We are pondering signing her up for the next session, but don't want to become one of those parents that has their kids doing too much instead of just enjoying life (Samara wanted to try soccer this fall).

Wow, she is just awesome!

I have a pic of Mara similar to this....

They almost look the same size, but in this one, Mara is almost 4 months old and Nala is 1 month!

Mara at 3 months, looking a lot like Nala above!

Our girls

Mara is very protective of her sister, much to our delight!

The size of a plate that Trav thinks is appropriate for 'the best brownies I have ever had.' And I even made them!

'Camping' for lunch. Mara was watching one of her PBS shows and they were camping, so she decided that she must go camping....so we went camping in the kitchen. Later that night, we read stories by flashlight in her tent in her room. It was a success.

More pictures

Mara's Coat of Many Colors, to go along with our lesson on Joseph.


Daddy's big art project outside.

Nalani exploring her crib mirror.

This is how Travis eats brownies.

Little Nalani, so serious.

Mara, ready for the sprinkler.

Mara and Mommy at her VBS picnic at Rachel's church.

Family pic!

Cute Nalani!

No explanation necessary.

Peg meeting Nala for the first time.

What a pose!

Mara helping Grandpa with Nalani.

First bath at home.